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As a multi-cultural nation, India accepts and respects cultural diversity, stress its inevitability, and holds that all varied ethnic groups are equal members of society. The Pano (or Kui Domanga) categorized as Scheduled Caste in Odisha, shares and practices all the major cultural attributes and behavior of the Khand ( or Kandha /Kondh)—classified as Scheduled Tribe in Odisha. Both of them share the same geographical area for their livelihood. The stigma of untouchability has been attached to the Pano or Kui Domanga by the enumerator. However, prior to the Independence of India they were considered as Hill Tribe. The Pano or Kui Domanga of the Balliguda sub-division, added to Odisha state from Madras Presidency in 1936, has now been excluded from Tribal list since 1956. The inclusion and exclusion of a community largely depends on birth, descent and kinship as well as legal-administrative mechanism. The paper discusses whether the claim of the Pano ( or Kui Domanga) as Scheduled Tribe like their immediate and inalienable neighbor— the Kandh, a Scheduled Tribe in Odisha are justified. Being a member of Scheduled Caste – the Pano( or Kui Domanga) observes and practices the same ritual activities in all sphere of life as a customary rule with their neighbour the Kandh –a Scheduled Tribe in a particularly restricted geographically territory where both the groups are Kui speakers, share same cultural attributes, symbols, dress, adornments, ornaments etc. This kind of phenomenon is very much evident with regard to the identification as a constitutionally enlisted scheduled group.
Keywords: Pano, Kondh, identity, tribe,caste, Community, Custom.

The inter-relationship between refugees and local host communitiy is given paramount importance in the academic discussion of refugees. While many researches have been conducted in development and academic arena, little work has been done on the perspectives of local people living in the surrounding areas of the Rohingya camps and how they are adapting to the Rohingya influx. This article discusses how the ‘local host community’ of Bangladesh differing by class and gender are adapting to the Rohingya influx, or the kinds of everyday experiences they are encountering without limiting their experiences to the binary division of advantage and disadvantage of Rohingya Influx. This article predominantly reconnoitered the complexities in defining the “host community”. Taking Foucault’s theory of governmentality into consideration and analysis of ethnographic data suggests that the sole interpretation of Bengalis as “host” and Rohingyas as “refugees” demands reconsideration in the current socio-political structure. The main argument of our article, established through research data gathered from the local people in the Rohingya refugee area, is that the ‘local host community’ is not a homogeneous entity; their social position differs individually by class, gender, economic and political status, and even their tendency and process to adapt to the Rohingya influx are different. The experiences of the local people through the perspective of ‘gain’ and ‘loss’ ismulti-faceted with class and gender issues are closely related. Though this influx of Rohingya has enhanced business opportunities for local wealthy people, it has narrowed the job market for local day laborers. Moreover, not all wealthy locals give in to the tensions in the social relations caused by the influx of Rohingya, they also attempt to prevent it. Tensions in social relations carry varied meanings and consequences for men and women. Hence, the impact of the Rohinghya influx on the ‘local host community’ is multidimensional and context dependent.
Keywords: Rohingya Influx, Host Community, Refugees, Livelihood, Everyday experience

The Dene-Caucasian (or Sino-Caucasian) hypothesis is a relatively young proposal, though it has deep roots in several earlier theories, as far back as the 1850s, that attempted to genetically connect (North) Caucasian languages with the Yeniseian and/or Sino-Tibetan language families. Some of these postulations also included Basque, Burushaski, and the Na-Dene family in North America. In the modern era since about the 1980s the Dene-Caucasian hypothesis has continued to evolve and be refined through the application of improved methods and more precise linguistic data. This writer, who has been involved with Dene Caucasian studies since the late 1980s, welcomes the critique and discussion of “Dene-Kusunda” (which I would call an extinct hypothesis) by Pascal Gerber (2017) in this journal. However, I must take issue with Gerber on several counts, such as misapprehension or mischaracterization of the basic texts of the Sino-Caucasian hypothesis (mainly by S.A. Starostin, published in the 1980s and 1990s), and his apparent unawareness of more recent studies published within the last two decades that should have been consulted for the critique. Finally, a sketch of the current Dene-Caucasian hypothesis, as offered by the Evolution of Human Language Project (sponsored by the Santa Fe Institute), is outlined, emphasizing lexical and grammatical evidence. It must be emphasized that the Kusunda language is not included in this version of the hypothesis.
Keywords: Dene-Caucasian, Sino-Caucasian, Dene-Kusunda, Burushaski, genetic linguistics, linguistic macrofamilies.

The world is undergoing a medical emergency due to the pandemic of the novel Corona Virus Disease (COVID19). All countries are implementing various strict measures to contain the spread of COVID19 including the implementation of nationwide lockdown inorder to maintain social distance. In the context of global medical emergency, it is important to understand how indigenous communities have understood the new pandemic and how they are applying their indigenous knowledge systems to prevent or protect themselves. This paper deals with the indigenous health care practices, particularly about traditional lock down rituals to maintain social distance of some tribal communities in Arunachal Pradesh, and tries to understand the worldview of these tribal communities.
Keywords: Covid-19,Arunachal Pradesh , Corona rituals, Social distancing ,Traditional lockdown.

The composite index of anthropometric failure (CIAF) is a recently proposed alternate anthropometric measure to assess the actual magnitude of undernutrition in children. The present investigation aims to determine the prevalence of undernutrition using CIAF and the effect of several socio-economic and demographic correlates. This cross-sectional investigation was undertaken in 1090 (520 boys; 570 girls) children aged 5-10 years in West Bengal, India. The anthropometric indices of wasting, underweight, stunting and CIAF were calculated by comparing with the international reference data. Chi-square analysis and binary logistic regression (BLR) analysis was done using SPSS (version 17.0). The overall prevalence of wasting, underweight, stunting and CIAF was observed being 15.05%, 35.50%, 29.54% and 48.35%, respectively. Girls were more affected than boys by wasting (17.02% vs. 12.85%). Boys were more affected than girls by underweight (39.04% vs. 32.28%), stunting (29.81% vs. 29.30%) and CIAF (49.62% vs. 47.19%) (p>0.05). BLR analysis showed several socio-economic and demographic variables were significantly associated with single, double and multiple anthropometric failures (p<0.05). Present investigation will help to identify the actual magnitude of undernutrition among rural Indian children. Identifications of socio-economic and demographic variables will be helpful to formulate appropriate intervention strategies.
Keywords: Anthropometry, Children, CIAF, Public Health, Undernutrition

Ethnicity is an important part of our discourse and practice in our modern world and it affects our visions and practices of identity and differences. Our conventional notions of ethnicity is linked to our rootedness in a place and culture but it does not always acknowledge the significance of routes—interactions, influences and intertwining pathways—in the very constitution and production of roots. This essay strives to rethink ethnicity and identities as cross-fertilization of roots and routes. Ethnic mobilization in the modern world has taken predominantly been confined to challenging existing state power and capture of power but this calls for the need for socio-cultural regeneration of the cultural resources such as heritage local knowledge that ethnic movements can take up. Ethnic movements can go beyond the facile construction of insider and outsider and develop a new politics and spirituality of mutual blossoming and hospitality what is called sahadharma in this essay. Finally we can reconstitute ethnicity and identities in a connected way—connecting roots and routes—as belonging to our Mother Earth and not only to the territories or cultures we are born. This is the calling of planetary realizations explored in this essay which is different from monological and one-dimensional view of globalization still dominant in our fragile world.
Keywords: socio-cultural regeneration, Sahadharma, planetary realizations, politics and spirituality of hospitality

As we are pushed into the global village, the very concept of community seems to lack its ‘form’ and rather to becoming ‘substance’. Geographical, ecological, ethnic or cultural characteristics that may create a community in the natural world now become redundant in the era of globalization. We can try now to recognize a community not with reference to its own ‘region’ but to a symbolic dimension of it. We have tried in this study to address the issue of marginalization of the tribal groups and the contradictions within tribal life across the red corridor region of India. This situation makes livelihood strategy, identity and culture of tribal and other disadvantaged communities at stake across the entire corridor. The Left Wing Extremist groups have been fighting for the ‘causes’ of the tribal and other disadvantaged communities since 1940s along the red corridor and are said to posing great challenge towards internal security of the Indian State. The latter has eventually come up with deployment of the counter-insurgency forces in the affected states in order ‘to clear and hold’ the region. Within these two embattling forces,life and culture of the tribal communities - third and the most important entity – face immeasurable impoverishment risk. This study further aims at assessing the impact of the LWE violence and counter-violence upon the tribal life and culture with special reference to a case study of Junglemahal area of West Bengal, and suggesting some urgent policy interventions in this regard.
Keywords: Marginalization, region, tribal life, LWE, red corridor, Junglemahal.

The paper explores how and why the divinatory functionaries among the Jalari community continue to be significant players in matters relating to health and illness. The import of personalistic etiologies and consequently the role of the divination by the dasudu, pati and kaniki is highlighted. The focus of the paper is also on how the dasudu see their role in contemporary times since the fallout in the configuration of social relationships in their community is the most valued explanation for illness today. Interestingly, the dasudu do relate the consequences of healing rituals on account of human agents and relate the same to the opportunity for greater frequency of illness caused by supernatural agents. The paper thus critically examines the changing nature of the problems referred to dasudu and discusses the dynamics of the illness explanations of the Jalari.
Keywords: Divination, Emotion, Jalari, Healing, Illness Etiologies.

The hydraulic civilization of Sri Lanka had been developed in terms of the tanks in the country. Agriculture is the main subsistence of Sri Lankans from the ancient past. Sri Lankans could able to build a proud history with traditional irrigation technological wisdom which shaped by rich cultural features of the ancient period. Hydraulic civilization in Sri Lanka has unique features of its own. The main income of the Pemaduwa people is paddy, dry and mixed cultivation and fishing. These people still have intimate relationships, practicing environmental protection methods and performing various cultural activities and social practices related totanks. The ancient bureaucratic system was not in practice and it had replaced by the present administrative system. The Objectives of this research are to study about the indigenous irrigation wisdom in terms of traditional technical knowledge, administration, management and environmental protection systems in the ancient irrigation civilization of the country. The present study has conducted in the Villachchi region in Anuradhapura district, which named as ‘MahawewbendhiRajjyaya’ (the country where massive tanks were built).
Keywords: Traditional Knowledge, Tanks, Sri Lanka, Hydraulic Civilization, Environmental Protection.